With a dozen glowing, gas-filled tubes and crackling electronic sound, "The Vibe" looks like something straight out of "Star Trek," and so do the claims — clarity, energy, well-being and relief from an array of ills, including anxiety, chronic pain, diabetes, tumors and sleeplessness.

But Lindea Kirschner and other clients at the new V.I.B.E. Shoppe on Oak Street in Ashland (681-0997) say never mind the weird, sci-fi appearance and improbable-sounding science; it seems to do something positive.

"It clears my head, takes away the cobwebs and I feel exuberant," says Kirschner, a Talent resident. "It's like a happy machine. People come out with the biggest grins on their faces."

The reaction of Tashina Wilkinson was similar. "I don't know the science, but I've done three sessions and all I can think is that I can't wait to get back and do it again. We're doing a home remodel and it's stressful but this just erases it. It's very inspirational. I feel I can handle anything."

Two other first-time clients leaving the shop, however, were less impressed. They say they didn't feel anything from their sessions with the Vibrational Integration Bio-Photonic Energizer.

Advertisement

The Vibe sits in the middle of a small room, with chairs around it. For $20, you sit in a chair for two to five minutes, holding a palm-sized, gold-plated coil in each hand (to help attract the energy).

You think positive thoughts about your well-being and you drink plenty of water before and after, instructs shop owner Aimee Wallace, who paid $18,000 for the device.

"What it does is raise the vibrational level of the body's cells back to their original, healthy state," says Wallace. "It's well worth the investment, because it benefits you physically, mentally and spiritually. I had a chronic bad back and it stopped hurting."

The 4-foot tall Vibe is a Tesla coil that conducts electricity to an array of tubes filled with stable gaseous elements — such as helium, neon and argon — that conduct electricity, said Gene Koonce, its inventor and manufacturer, in an interview from his base in Greeley, Colo.

Cells, he explains, get out of balance from toxins in air, water and food, "negative energy environments" and our own emotional issues. Energy is radiated from the coil and the gas-filled tubes in a range that is the same as the vibrational rate of healthy cells and organs, thus prompting unhealthy cells to increase amplitude and match that optimal rate, Koonce says.

"The tubes are excited by the Tesla coil. Gases head toward electrodes in the tubes and create photons. These change the energy environment around the cell and change bad cells to normal cells," says Koonce, adding that the electromagnetic radiation "opens pathways so the brain can communicate with a diseased area. It balances the body and gives you more energy."

Wallace demonstrated the Vibe's field, placing a fluorescent light tube near it. It lit up — and got dimmer as it was pulled away from the machine. Results are improved 30 percent by "setting your intention," she says, and thinking positive thoughts about what you want to heal.

Drinking water also improves results, because water is a good conductor or electricity, notes Koonce.

Bev Collins-Wright of Ashland got "vibed," as it's called, for uterine fibroids and says she doesn't notice symptoms now — and feels "a general sense of overall well-being and quality of my energy."

At the end of December, she brought in her mother, who was suffering from macular degeneration and bad knee problems and reports, and with treatment four times a week, both have cleared up, she says.

Koonce, 55, says that after he invented the Vibe five years ago and started using it on himself, he got rid of his arthritis, and his eyesight improved enough that his contact lenses have been reduced in strength three times.

While Dr. Robin Miller, director of Asante's Integrative Medicine Clinic says the theory of the Vibe machine makes sense, she can find no clinical trials on the Internet for the device.

"I would need to see the studies," says Miller. "My concern is that people would delay medical treatment for things that are really a problem, thinking that this machine is the answer."

Asked if the Vibe had been subjected to independent research, Koonce said it had undergone clinical and double-blind studies under Ginger Bowler, Ph.D., at Holos University.

Holos describes itself on its Web site as a school focused on "energetic and integrative health care and spiritual healing." Bowler's organization, Energy Medicine Ministries in Boulder, Colo., has a Web page praising the Vibe, explaining how it works and offering it for sale.

Koonce says he wants to keep the Vibe as an energy device, not a medical device. He does, however, want to be able to promote its health properties and to do that, he has to wait till standard medical trials are done.

However, Koonce, in his promotional DVD, does claim "tremendous results" treating multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, lupus, headaches, cataracts, high blood pressure and high blood sugar. He adds that 40,000 people have used it with no adverse effects and "although it doesn't seem to work on everybody, overall it tends to get results in a majority of people."

Anyone can buy a Vibe machine and set up shop, said Koonce, who offers one day of training and a user's manual. There are no side effects, he adds, noting that the machine brings noticeable changes in 30 percent of users the first time and that most repeat users say it benefits them in some manner.

John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.